The Stories of Richard Bausch: A PEN/Malamud Award-Winning Collection of Tender, Heartbreaking, and Funny Stories

by Richard Bausch

A 2004 PEN/Malamud Award winner, this collection celebrates the work of American artist Richard Bausch -- a writer the New York Times calls "a master of the short story." By turns tender, raw, heartbreaking, and riotously funny, the many voices of this definitive forty-two-story collection (seven of which appear here for the first time) defy expectation, attest to Bausch's remarkable range and versatility, and affirm his place alongside such acclaimed story writers as John Cheever, Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, and Grace Paley.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Literary Fiction, Classics, Collections, The United States Of America

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

An acknowledged master of the short story form, Richard Bausch's work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, Narrative, Gentleman's Quarterly. Playboy, The Southern Review, New Stories From the South, The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize Stories; and they have been widely anthologized, including The Granta Book of the American Short Story and The Vintage Book of the Contemporary American Short Story.

Richard Bausch is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of stories, including the novels Rebel Powers, Violence, Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America And All The Ships At Sea, In The Night Season, Hello To The Cannibals, Thanksgiving Night, and Peace; and the story collections Spirits, The Fireman's Wife, Rare & Endangered Species, Someone To Watch Over Me, The Stories of Richard Bausch, Wives & Lovers, and most recently released Something Is Out There. His novel The Last Good Time was made into a feature-length film.

He has won two National Magazine Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award, the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the 2013 John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence . He has been a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers since 1996. In 1999 he signed on as co-editor, with RV Cassill, of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction; since Cassill's passing in 2002, Bausch is the sole editor of that prestigious anthology. Richard Bausch teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University in Southern California

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of Raymond Carver will revel in the work of 2004 PEN/Malamud award winner Richard Bausch.

Personal favourites include 'Par', 'Riches' - a grimly comic tale about winning the lottery - and stand-out masterpieces 'The Fireman's Wife' and 'What Feels Like the World.'

As far as I know Bausch is the only American writer to borrow James Kelman's technique of using a row of three dots to indicate a silence or lull in a conversation. It pays dividends in '1-800', a cringe-humour piece about a phone sex provider and her client.

Bausch's novel Peace is well worth getting hold of too.

[Nicole Gadbois]

This guy is a great writer, and an interesting man. I had the opportunity to meet him at college. He taught me something valuable about writing. He said that most writers make the mistake of only writing about their experiences. He said it is important to take the feeling of those experiences that have defined your life and write a million stories from those feelings.

[Melanie H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I happened upon this book at a used bookstore, not sure why it called out to me, but somehow it did. And boy am I glad. By far one of the best short story collections I have ever read. Truly on par with the likes of John Cheever. The truth is that most people are not heroes, they simply are people.

[Neyly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories

Richard Bausch - "whom the Washington Post Book World calls 'a virtuoso of language and literary grace'" - deserves this 5-star rating ... even though not one happy relationship can be found in any of the short stories. (I mean, really, not one. Come on.)

Some of the stories though ... I can't put into words how good I find them. The O'Henry Award-winning "What Feels Like the World" renders my 5-star rating so inadequate.

Other favorites:
"The Man Who Knew Belle Starr"
"Design"
"Old West"
"Luck"
"Aren't You Happy for Me?"

The versatility ... wow!

*I searched out "What Feels Like the World" while reading The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. I found it in this book and then read the other 40-some-odd short stories herein. No regrets. (Thanks to A.J. Fikry for the recommendation.)

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bausch can be hit or miss, as this volume amply demonstrates. I'd recommend his two best individual collections, "The Fireman's Wife" and "Rare & Endangered Species," over this one. You'll have fewer weak stories to wade through.

[Siri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the stories in this collection, but honestly, I think it is perhaps best to not read through this as one would a novel. This being a library book, I felt obligated to get it read and attempt to return it by the due date. These stories all deal with sad or emotional moments and I felt a little relieved dropping it in the return slot in the library. On to happier stories.
I will definitely read more by Bausch though. Even in the shorter stories he had a way of pulling me in after the first paragraph and feeling like I really knew what was going on with the characters.

[Maggie Koger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories hold up because of an underlying generosity of the creator. I didn't read every story, but found some interesting favorites. Unfortunately, the most publicized includes a wedding cake placed in the middle of a road and anyone who has built or delivered a wedding cake would know it would have to be an unrecognizable clump of cake and frosting after the series of adventures it would surely not survive. but other than that, the characterization of Tandolfo is convincing. After all, he is not in his right mind from too much tippling.

[Sea Stachura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of my favorites: "Someone to Watch Over Me" "Nobody in Hollywood""what Feels Like the World" "1-900"

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of you raptly following my reading lists of the past several months (and I say that in full knowledge that no one is actually paying any attention to any of this) you might say to yourself, “Self, he’s certainly on a short story collection tear right now,” and you’d be right. Lydia Davis, Alice Munro, Luchia Berlin, Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus are in the rearview mirror and Richard Yates, more Munro and Chekov (what…seriously?) are on the horizon.

This collection by Mr. Richard Bausch was recommended based on my Currently Reading list. Simply put, rock solid. Even the lesser efforts are good. I can’t say I loved them all, but there are several that really hit me in the old emotion-bone - that place that is both painful and strangely satisfying. “Equity” leaps to mind. "Wise Men at Their End" as well. "A Letter to the Lady of the House" has perhaps the best two sentence closing to any short story I read. While there is a great deal of sadness in his stories, there is rarely a sense of hopelessness. And there is plenty of humor, albeit dark, as well.

So where does this rank with the recent collections read? In my opinion, better than Davis by far (I don't get the hype). Better than Berlin and Carver (yes, I said it). Right up there with Dubus and maybe a bit above. Not quite Munro level, but not far from it either. Definitely worth checking out.

[scott]

The stories collected here were written over some twenty years, and so reading them together made for a fun comparison. Some of the stories are riskier than others, and some of the stories are more straight- forward ("Someone to Watch Over Me" at one end and "The Fireman's Wife" at the other). With one exception, all of them are ambitous and beautifully made ("Old West" didn't work for me, but 43/44 stories is pretty impressive)

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy is a great writer. He's like a gentile Roth, in a sense. Moderately and accessibly American, in a way that other excellent writers (Barry Hannah, Brady Udall...) are not, because of their particularized intensity (not because Bausch lacks intensity--he doesn't at all, or because these others are not beautiful).

Bausch is a "southern" writer who writes about the rest of us too.

[Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful stories. RB can make resignation seem like a noble and positive thing. When so much art is about expansive limitlessness, it's nice to read something artful, but grounded within the mundane and everyday-ness of real life.

[Will]

I've read Richard Bausch's "Valor" elsewhere, and this seems like something I'd enjoy. I noticed he had a penchant for being able to communicate the difficulty in communicating. That is, um, a hard road to hoe.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't actually finish this book of short stories. Each story was very well-written and I wanted all of them to be novels instead. Somewhere along the way I lost interest. Maybe it was during the move? I've never been a big fan of short stories.

[Cody VC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 3.5; quite good. His style didn't completely work for me, unfortunately, though I could tell he is a very fine writer. The stories I found most effective were 'Glass Meadow', 'Someone to Watch Over Me', 'What Feels Like the World', 'Old West' and assorted others.

[Sandra Novack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Carver reincarnated. Great dialogue that advances plot and deepens character. Good pacing.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love his writing. Most of these stories will really stay with you.

[Drew Rosensweig · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Immediately upon finishing the collection, Drew found himself wondering why he left all of his Raymond Carver in America. Then he remembered."

[Ms.]

A very gifted short story writer...more to come after I finish!

[Josh Ang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best collection of short stories I've read in the past 2 years...

[McNatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

these stories are about people and relationships, not really what I generally go for but they were deeply moving..almost upsetting at times

[Donna Baier-Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master of story-telling.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would you like to feel good about your life. Your decisions. At least feel like your problems are at least no worse than others. Then read about troubled relationships, mid life malaise and a host of other problems.

This is a great writer of seventies and eighties suburbia. For those who often wonder what is going on over the neighbors fence, why those voices raised, and cars come in or leave late at night, Bausch gives us a glimpse. What we find is probably no more exciting or unique than what others might see in our own but we all love to look, and judge, and feel better about ourselves by doing so

Noting as I read so thoughts remain fresh.

“ Nobody in Hollywood “ opens the collection very well. Narrated by a man who remarks that he was bullied as a kid. Now, fully grown, but still under five feet, he goes to live with an older brother in Montana. The brother is infatuated with a new girlfriend, an Indian, beautiful he claims, she knew Mick Jagger, her kid might be his. When he meets her he sees right thru her stories and when he tells his brother they fight. At the hospital he meets his future wife while the girlfriend returns to the brothers cabin, robs it and runs away. Twenty years later he and his wife are about done. She tells him to leave, she has a new female lover. It is the same woman his brother loved using a different name.

“ Valor “ A man finds his marriage suffering from his wife’s obsession with her younger brother injured in the war. After spending the night at a bar he comes across a school bus accident and saves many kids lives, risking his own. He looks forward to telling g his wife, but when she tells him it’s over he sees it will make no difference

“ Riches” For all the times you have been told that money will not make you happy, meet our narrator. Happily married, a nice modest house. It all changes when he wins a 16 million dollar lottery. Suddenly everyone wants money, no one treats him the same. He and his wife argue over which members of the family to give Cadillacs to. It is not the dream one expects.

“ Self Knowledge “ is a brief three page story about an elderly, still teaching school teacher who in trying to quit drinking makes a serious error in judgment

“ Glass Meadow “ has a man recalling g his childhood, remembering how close he was with his brother as well as how his parents were different. Always broke, one step ahead of Bill collectors, banks, and occasionally the law, he recalls their constant love for each other, their basic happiness in the middle of the chaos and how, the two boys could never get fully in that circle.

“ Par” follows a middle aged widower, balding, unmotivated career wise, golf obsessed who becomes involved with a woman. Sensing his last opportunity, she also feels worry about him. She met him at the trial of her long time boyfriend, his abusive behavior makes her glad when he is convicted. They are both broken people

“ Someone to Watch Over Me “ A man and a woman are at a restaurant celebrating their first anniversary. All is not well though. The man is almost two decades older and still close with, and perhaps has more in common with, his first wife from long ago. When she discovers the restaurant and hotel they are at were from first wife’s suggestion all her insecurities come out and she puts on a terribly bratty performance

“ Fatality “ is a dark story that moves with a sense of inevitability toward its conclusion. A man, a father, struggles with the marriage of his daughter. He had been against the marriage. When his son in law starts abusing his daughter and after repeated conversations dies not change his way he comes to a resolution

“ The Voices From the Other Room “ is gold as a long conversation ( presumably heard in a hotel ) between a man and woman. Both cheating on their partners they seem to have a different sense of what this relationship is and is not

“ Two Altercations “ follows the lead up and aftermath of a couple being witness to a violent incident and their reactions to it. Stuck in a traffic jam a gunplay incident occurs very close to them and the husband does not act in the most expected, chivalrous manner

“ 1951” is a short two page remembrance by a seven year old girl living with her Minister Father and her understanding of her power as he looks for a woman to replace her Mother who had died at her birth.

“ The Man Who Knew Belle Starr “ is a story that follows a young man of 23 driving west in his old Dodge Charger. Just out of Leavenworth after four years for assault and holding a dishonourable discharge he considers himself hardened. He picks up a young hitchhiker who he finds himself attracted to. When she pulls out a gun on a diner cook and shoots him he realizes how ill prepared he is. She can’t drive so she makes him drive her as he tries to convince her not to shoot him. That does not go that well

“ What Feels Like the World “ is a five star story. Might be the best demonstration I’ve read of what it might feel like to be a young child and attach significance to something beyond reason. Narrated by a grandfather raising his recently deceased daughters child. He loves her, he does his best. The girl is taking part in a PTA demonstration of gymnastics and matter of factly states she is the only one who cannot do some of the moves. Must admit I hated tumbling at that age and can remember those feelings of inadequacy. This one hit home. And my parents were right. Vaulting and tumbling means little as a grown up. But boy did it matter then.

“ Ancient History “ Follows an eighteen year old in his first year out of high school. His Father died unexpectedly in the summer and now, at Christmas, he and his Mother have driven to spend the holiday with his Fathers spinster sister.

“ Contrition “ follows a man, recently divorced, whose life has fallen apart and who finds himself living with his sister and her new husband.

“ Police Dreams” is a strong story. A man has bad dreams about his family being attacked. He is a happy man, content, with a wife and two young boys. The weekday mornings are hectic but he pictures these as the good days, the days they will look. Ack on fondly. For his wife it’s different, she is tired, depressed, sad. The narrator reflects on the stress of daily life, how even down time, vacation time, is stressful because as one experiences we fret that it will be over. His wife leaves. After a month she wants the boys. The dreams were not wrong, he had not seen it coming.

“ Wise Men At Their End” An 83 year old man has to deal with daily caretaking visits from his widowed daughter in law. When he has a fall and breaks a leg he also has to put up with her matchmaking efforts

“ Wedlock” is an odd story following a newlywed couple on their honeymoon night. She,25, had been married before to a low end touring musician while, he, 22 is less experienced. A case of nerves and latent jealousy leads to hurt feelings

“ Old West “ is funny. The narrator is the young boy from the novel Shane as in “ Shane, Come Back.” Now an eighty year old man, writing in 1950, he recalls the summer of his twenty first year when Shane returned to town. Now balding, with a paunch, and older than his years, he now is a bounty hunter. And our narrator realizes that much of the story he remembers from his boyhood was not as it really was.

In “ Design “ we follow a forty something priest who worries about the Pastor at a neighbouring church. This man in his seventies seems to be failing physically but making no accommodations to it. He, on the other hand, finds himself a hypochondriac, not enjoying his priestly function.

Jane is “ The Fireman’s Wife.” When she married Martin two years ago and moved to his town she did not realize how both lonely and smothered she would feel. Lonely on the 3 or 4 day stretches he worked, smothered when he was home. Much of the latter was a result of his almost constant companionship with a couple fellow workers on the same shift. One night she resolves to leave him. As she sleeps he is brought home with badly burned hands, she had heard the whistles earlier. His friend had died at the fire that night. He had seen her clothes in a suitcase and knew what she had been thinking. As she nurses him the next few days she tells him it was just a fleeting moment and tells herself she can leave later if she still wants to.

In “ Consolation “ Millie, the wife of the killed firefighter in the previous story goes to visit her deceased husbands parents with their grandchild for the first time. She had been pregnant when he died. Her sister, who has a divorce pending, travels with her. The grandparents seem bothered by the child but she soon comes to realize they too are struggling with a terrible loss

In “ The Brace” a middle aged woman with three kids, a husband she loves lives a simple “ boring “ life that she loves. Except when her Father, a famous playwright on his fifth wife comes to visit.

“ The Eyes of Love” follows a young married couple, her pregnant with their first child as they bicker before and then argue after a family picnic that she did not want to attend.

“ Luck “ is an excellent story. A young man, a year out of high school, is working with his Father on a painting job. He realizes as he gets back to the house with some hamburgers he picked up that his Father has been drinking. He doesn’t say anything, he knows what happens next. When his Father goes to the bank he knows he won’t be back, he and his Mother won’t hear from him until he hits bottom. He keeps painting. The owner of the house they are painting arrives. He is wealthy, this house is huge, he has a son the same age as our young painter. He keeps talking about the quality of their work and how nice it must be for Father and Son to work together. The young man realizes the rich man, looking at what he assumes to be the life of him and his Father, considers them the lucky ones.

“ Equity” centers on Carol, the youngest, considerably so of three sisters. As their Mother had retired she had taken to going from daughter to daughter on no set schedule. A year ago Carol had a breakdown of sorts and her Mother spent considerable time with her until she was on her feet. The sisters had noticed the Mother had been moving items from house to house. One sisters dress ends up in the others closet, furtively not openly. Now her Mother’s slide into dementia has come fast and hard and her two older sisters want to meet and discuss what comes next.

“ Letter to the Lady of the House” In the middle of the night a seventy something man writes a letter to his wife. He acknowledges how they have grown apart, how they fight over stupid things or just are tired of each other. But, with all of their kids arriving for holiday the next day he wants her to know how much he has loved his marriage. That it was all worth it

“Aren’t You Happy For Me “ is a very good story with some well placed humor. A mid forties husband receives an unexpected call from his twenty something daughter. She had stayed in the city when she finished college. She tells him she has some to tell him. He says he does as well. She is getting married. Oh!! Well, Congratulations. But wait, there is more. She’s pregnant. Now he decides he cannot share his news, he and his wife ( her Mother) are splitting up. Now she has more info. The man, her husband to be, his new son in law. He’s older. How much older. Oh, your not going to like this.

“ Not Quite Final “ continues the story above in a more heartfelt way. Almost two years later and Melanie the daughter, eleven month old baby, and 64 year old husband are moving back to Virginia where Jack her Father and his estranged wife, her Mother Mary live. In an afternoon of helping the couple unload , move in and get settled there are a lot of interesting interactions. Of special note is the feelings of remembrance grandparents feel with their first grandchild, struggling to accept their offspring is no longer one themselves

“ Weather” Another very emotional story. A woman and her Mother are driving to the mall. The Mother lives with her and her husband. The couple are struggling. He is unemployed and bitter about it. The mission at the mall is a rap CD for the birthday of her 13 year old daughter. She has had four miscarriages since. This is a stress. The women argue, commiserate,and talk about the marriage. Then in line in the crowded record store an altercation occurs which changes the day.

“ High Heeled Shoe “ A man finds a shoe on a walk in a field. It leads to him revealing ( he thinks) the now finished affair he had recently to his wife. He loves his wife, but he feels relief that she knows. When he goes into talk to her about it he discovers she did not figure it out, the burden of knowledge is still only on him.

“ Tandolfo the Great “ follows a magician in his twenties having a bad day. Seems buying a wedding cake as a marriage proposal doesn’t always work out

“ Evening” follows a man in his mid seventies struggling with depression, perhaps an “ is this all there is “ feeling. He worries his daughter and wife are talking about him but then feels slightly out when they attest that they are not

In “ Billboard” a young man is dealing with his life being blown up. His long time fiancé has run off with his younger brother to be married. He has a dream about burning her house down and considers following thru

In “ The Person I Have Mostly Become “ we meet a youngish married man during the last housing market crash. He is a contractor and cannot find work. He has a wife and son and his Mother living with him. He wants to be a good Father, his own abandoned the family and this has changed him. Yet he always feels short with his son. He describes working so hard to raise them and love them that you don’t have time to like them. He is beaten down by the changes to both his and his Mother’s financial circumstances

1-900 let’s us listen to a man making his first ever call to a phone sex operator. But, he wants to talk first, to get to know her. His life is a mess. When she finally tells him a bit about her life she then says she feels funny about the phone sex thin with him

“ My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun : A man has come back home to help his Mother. His Father has left with a woman half his age and she has had a breakdown. She is in a psych ward downtown and he is faced with cleaning up the house which is beyond compare dirty and cluttered. This man himself, in his early thirties and lonely has issues. When he hires a cleaner to help out she agrees to work three hours a day on the project. When he develops feelings for her it is not going to end well.

In “ Weight” it’s the early nineties and a 100 year old man remembers the spring of his twelfth year. His whole family is stricken with a flu that is befalling Baltimore. A local black woman nurses he and his sister. Later he witnessed two terrible events in one day. The black woman’s husband is beaten to within an inch of his life in a racial incident. A circus elephant falls off a train and breaks its back and the workers struggle to put it out of its misery.

“ Accuracy” is a realistic look at how life never works out the way you think, and often the way you present. Two high school friends, now on the late side of middle age, are meeting a third to play golf. They have not seen him in thirty years. A chance meeting had led to this outing. He brings along his much younger but odd acting wife. This leads to conflict. As time passes the men realize the futility of their posturing. As they say to each other ; one is in a fading marriage with a wife who drinks and gets mean, and one has a thirty year old daughter suffering from lack of ambition if not clinical depression living in his basement. The third,their old friend admits his life had been a blur of alcoholism until a couple of years ago when his new wife “ saved “ him. He also admits he fell off the wagon last night which accounts for some of her animosity today.

“ Unjust “ presents a man leading up to a breakdown or at least a breakout of anger. Accused of sexual harassment at the Sheriffs office where he works, which he honestly feels he did not do, he is suspended from his work. His daughter has returned from California, a failed actress, dragging along an effete young man she constantly bickers with. He then learns the man is her husband and she is pregnant. And 200 yards away across the fence his neighbor is constantly verbally and sometimes physically so to his eleven year old son. Something has to give, and then it does

“ Guatemala “ follows a woman, her teenage daughter, and her eccentric Mother who have all lived together since the girl’s Father died in a drowning accident when she was so young she does not remember him. On this night the women are to be joined by Dalton, the middle female’s new love interest. It’s a big step. The Grandmother is eccentric if not downright crazy, the granddaughter is suffering with teenage girl issues and the boyfriend is trying, and failing, to make things go well

[Kathryn Zeuthen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to read a short story every day. I have loved short stories for many years and there are just so many to read so I set a plan in place. Many people may not know Richard Bausch but if you want to read some of the best short stories in American literature, you should start here. He is capable of making you form an attachment to his characters in just 15-20 pages. The characters in his stories are real people and as I read them I could picture people like that in my own life. The situations that they are facing are also real problems. Not overly dramatic but everyday issues. His writing flows and before you know it, you have finished the story. I appreciate writers that use simple form to connect the readers to the story. He is a master.

[Leo Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific compendium. I did not finish two, which, given the number of stories and the scope, is impressive.

I admit there were moments I wondered if I'd ever get to see him write a female character who was, at the very least likable, if not sympathetic. There are several by the end. But it's the kind of thing you start to notice when you're reading ten, twenty, thirty stories in a row--how many of the wives, girlfriends, hitchhikers, are borderline, if not outright, villainous. I was pretty horrified and clutching my pearls every twenty or thirty pages.

Otherwise, masterful stories.

[Alec]

#2
The smoke curled up past his face, and one eye was closed against it. The odd thing about Smitty was that whenever these other men were around, nothing of the kindness of the real man came through; something about their casual hardness affected him, and he seemed to preside over it all, like an observer, a scientist—interested without being involved.

[dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for class. I actually liked these more than what we've been reading lately. The characters are intriguing, they make me want to know more, and "Aren't You Happy For Me?" has become one of my favorites. The plot is well written, the timing is good, and it doesn't run off into more than it needs to be. I liked this one.

[LTC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. These stories are so real and universal, the characters so lifelike, at times you can’t help but feel like you know these characters, or some aspect of them is deep within you. So many fantastic stories.

[Ian Tomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Life changing stuff, for me.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why too depressing.